re: Disgusted By School Administration

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 9:41am

I know there's nothing I can do about it by posting on here, but I need to rant.

My brother is a junior in high school. Some of the juniors take trigonometry their first semester and pre-calculus the second half of the year. In the school, trig is a prerequisite for pre-calc.

First of all, my brother's trig teacher quit a few weeks into the school year and has had a substitute ever since. Second, he was pulled out of the trig class and put into a pre-calc class...and of course the substitute followed over. Apparently, the trig class had too many students (wtf). As a result of all this, his grade has sharply declined. It's not horrible, but math had always been his strongest subject...As and A-pluses. Now he is in the very low Bs.

What confuses me and disgusts me is how they could pull him and other students (who, according to him, aren't doing so great either) out of a trig class that is needed in preparation for pre-calc, even if the trig class was "too big." I remember when I was in trig, we learned a lot of formulas that were important to know for pre-calc. I don't understand why this pre-calc class can't just be a trig class.

I can't imagine the administration is doing all they can to help these students. Should I mentioned our school just BARELY passed an accreditation testing with numerous warnings. It saddens me at the low quality education that the students are receiving, especially when there are some very intelligent students that deserve much better.

This school I'm talking about has many administration problems...I don't know if you would consider this "school message board" material, but has anyone ever faced serious problems with their high school that negatively affected the students? What did you do about it? What opinions do you guys have about this? Just looking for some thoughts about this.

Updated On: 11/25/06 at 09:41 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 9:49am

I would tell your parents that it would probably be a good idea for them to contact the principal or school board and talk to them about this. If Trig is a pre-requesite, then there should have been NO REASON for them to put him in pre-cal without knowing how to do basic formulas and stuff first. The thing about math is that it builds on each other. You miss one thing, and you are out of luck.

Updated On: 11/25/06 at 09:49 AM

[catharsis]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 10:00am

The high school in my town, from what I've read, is just as bad. They were in the newspaper almost everyday two years ago because they were causing such a stir.

The school had a bunch of budget issues, because the town officials don't handle money well. The school district decided to CUT all art, music, drama, extracurricular activities, and everything else that broke up the day for the students. They were left with only english, foreign language, math, history, and science. The day was shortened by an hour, and many jobs were lost. Class sizes skyrocketed. (I believe I heard that there was a 42-kid science class that had students sitting on the heaters at the back of the room.)

They were warned by the state, and nearly lost accreditation. I remember the students protesting outside a school committee meeting.
It took 6 months before they regained any of their classes.

As for you, millie, get your parents to call and complain. Then, get other parents to call and complain. There is strength in numbers. If you get your brother's story around, and get others involved, there is a better chance of things changing. Perhaps your brother's issue with help expose the weaknesses in the system.

[Becky2]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 8:02pm

Oy, I know your pain. I graduated from my high school over two years ago, but the stupidity of it's administation still come back to haunt me. You don't go to Corunna High School by any chance? Your story sounds like somthing they might do.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 9:32pm

Do you want to hear about School Administrations?

In NYS, all Juniors must take the state mandated Regnets Exam in English. They must receive a passing grade on this exam in order to graduate. It's a 6 hour exam that consists mostly of 4 essays.

At the Mecca of Education, the English Department was notified that ALL students in grades 9, 10 and 11 MUST take the exam in January 07.

Not only is this unfair to the students, but to the English Department as well. Each essay has to be graded twice--by different teachers. It looks as though we'll be sleeping in at the school!

[JLY's Jersey Gal]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 10:44pm

That does sound true Dolly.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 11/25/06 at 10:52pm

In PA they have instituted a new system to make sure that the state distributed tutoring money is being put to good cause. The students are tested 4 times a year by the 4-Sight test. (Gotta love the catchy title). Basically, the idea is you want the students to do poorly on the first one or two so that the scores improve on the latter tests.

Well, it's time to do the second test, and at my one school, the prinicpal is gettting so uptight about it that she's dividing all the kids into groups of under 10, with the special ed kids in even smaller groups. (Mind you, these are all supposed to be standardized tests that you can't really "help" with, so I don't know what she thinks she's accomplishing). And of course, that screws up all the specialists schedules.

Oh...and then they have to pay teachers or offer them inservice time to grade the tests over the weekends.

And if you think that's awful, you should see what happens when we get the state mandated achievement tests!